SBL Technique Accelerator Course

[Woodinblack]

I think it is the absolute minutia of it - if you just pick a lesson to watch on his site it would be how to play some riff fast or how to do walking bass. But because this is a course you do “playing one note for ten minutes and listening to how it sounds and how your hand feels” and that sort of thing. And strangely, it makes a difference. I still think the mere fact of paying for it actually helps a lot 

[lownote]

Incidentally if any clever person on here is also on the course and can explain to me Scott's fingering using economy plucking on broken thirds (as in lessons 4 and 8  I'd be super grateful.  I thought I understood economy plucking but seems not 

Edit: now sorted, tnx to Alexis

Edited November 21, 2018 by lownote12

[roblpm]

56 minutes ago, No. 8 Wire said:

I guess i meant any changes from the SBL fundamentals courses which haven't changed since you left. From what you've said it sound like concentrating on little things in nano detail.  The sort of thing we don't do let to our own devices!

I think that is its benefit. Money paid = commitment. 

[lownote]

The interesting meta point is the cost v 121 traditional lessons. It’s roughly a quarter the cost and for top notch teaching  plus invaluable support from the hundreds if not thousands of other students on the course. I feel sorry for traditional music teachers - like so many other trades their day is over seems to me. 

[No. 8 Wire]

1 hour ago, lownote12 said:

The interesting meta point is the cost v 121 traditional lessons. It’s roughly a quarter the cost and for top notch teaching  plus invaluable support from the hundreds if not thousands of other students on the course. I feel sorry for traditional music teachers - like so many other trades their day is over seems to me. 

I don't know, my son is learning piano mostly by book/online and there really is no substitute for someone hands on making sure he has the right technique.

[PawelG]

57 minutes ago, No. 8 Wire said:

I don't know, my son is learning piano mostly by book/online and there really is no substitute for someone hands on making sure he has the right technique.

But then again what's right for somebody else, might not be right for your son. Or vice versa. It's all really subjective, if your son is making lovely music - who is there to tell him if the technique is right or wrong - it's all his individual style.
I like Scott's stuff as he always says that you take into account what people tell you and make them your own. Because there's no point doing something that's uncomfortable for you just because that's the ''correct'' way to do it.
Good teacher has to adjust and really look at things from your perspective, not the perspective of ''right'' or ''wrong''. And I think these are hard to come by.

[No. 8 Wire]

12 minutes ago, PawelG said:

if your son is making lovely music

That's a big if!  

I get your point, but with some instruments there is a more or less 'right' way and piano is one.

Yes a good teacher must take account of the individual, Scott is the ultimate in this.  However, even he through this course gives right ways to do something.  Lownote12 wouldn't be needing help with deciphering Scott's economy picking if he was one on one.

Hopefully the quality online lessons will mean less of the poor quality 121 teachers though.

[lownote]

1 hour ago, No. 8 Wire said:

That's a big if!  

I get your point, but with some instruments there is a more or less 'right' way and piano is one.

Yes a good teacher must take account of the individual, Scott is the ultimate in this.  However, even he through this course gives right ways to do something.  Lownote12 wouldn't be needing help with deciphering Scott's economy picking if he was one on one.

Hopefully the quality online lessons will mean less of the poor quality 121 teachers though.

Two things here. And I have thought about this. I agree that for kids 121 is good. As long they’re good and that’s a big if. The teachers of both bass and sax I know are all fantastic musicians and extremely iffy teachers. No 8 is right to reference my need for help but fact is I was rescued by a fellow trainee and an SBL team member within hours. So it’s no different from 121 help. 

And anyway no 8, what are you doing having kids. I had you down as a young thing.

Edited November 21, 2018 by lownote12

[No. 8 Wire]

19 minutes ago, lownote12 said:

And anyway no 8, what are you doing having kids. I had you down as a young thing.

I've got 4 of them ranging from 0-11!

Not young except maybe relatively speaking.  I just reached the answer to the meaning of life.

[lownote]

I haven't bothered to keep up with Scott's course since before Christmas. Yesterday I played my local blues jam after a similar layoff and I played the best I've ever done - surprised even me and I'm my own worst critic.

Not saying achievement is inversely proportional to practice but clearly a good deal of good stuff went in and stayed in. 

 

 

[No. 8 Wire]

38 minutes ago, lownote12 said:

I haven't bothered to keep up with Scott's course since before Christmas. Yesterday I played my local blues jam after a similar layoff and I played the best I've ever done - surprised even me and I'm my own worst critic.

Not saying achievement is inversely proportional to practice but clearly a good deal of good stuff went in and stayed in. 

 

 

Are you still going to complete the course?

[Woodinblack]

I have found several lessons were a bit blank, where either it was something I already did fine or it didn't mean much to me, but some really helped. Like this weeks one

[No. 8 Wire]

I've been following the practice threads for the course on SBL, well, skim reading them!  I've been surprised how much of the information members say is new to them is actually within the fundamentals courses already on SBL (which is a good thing).  It makes me wonder how many people sign up to SBL and then don't do the courses! Or maybe they think the fundamentals courses are below their level of playing so skip to the advanced levels.  Or maybe they have been members so long they have forgotten those early lessons.

I suspect paying for a limited time course with a very focused syllabus is more motivating than an all you can eat lifetime SBL membership!

[lownote]

2 hours ago, No. 8 Wire said:

Are you still going to complete the course?

Of course, just in my own time.  Like Woodinblack above I just found it went either easy or so painfully detailed, picky (anal?) I couldn't bear it.  But it won't go away so I'll revisit it sometime because as I said in my original post, it's surprisingly useful.  I'll go further - it has transformed my playing.   

Edited January 31, 2019 by lownote12

[No. 8 Wire]

From what I have gleaned in the practice logs, it is that finickyness that makes the difference.  That attention to detail is very hard to accomplish by myself.  I could see myself doing this course in the distant future when i have more free time.

Edited January 31, 2019 by No. 8 Wire

[Woodinblack]

16 minutes ago, No. 8 Wire said:

I've been following the practice threads for the course on SBL, well, skim reading them!  I've been surprised how much of the information members say is new to them is actually within the fundamentals courses already on SBL (which is a good thing).  It makes me wonder how many people sign up to SBL and then don't do the courses! Or maybe they think the fundamentals courses are below their level of playing so skip to the advanced levels. 

Well, me. I signed up back in 2013 when life membership was pretty cheap, did a few lessons, got bored carried on with other things. So much so that when I go it tells me that it looks like I am new here! Probably been there less than 50 times in 6 years.

This course is the stuff that you just don't choose to do yourself because.. well, why would you. But when it is in one course on its own that you paid for, it makes sense to do it. That is why I did it.

And I believe I have learned stuff on this course as well as it has pushed me into really listening to what I am doing. Some of the lessons are - my god, why would anyone need to be told that, and some are wow, thats good - One thing I am not is consistant, I can do some quite advanced stuff while falling down on some real basics.

 

 

[Bigwan]

I see the technique accelerator course is open for registration again. Anyone who signed up the first time (and stuck with it!) what did you think of it? My playing rut over the last few years would give the Marianas trench a run for its money! It's getting free time is my biggest issue. How much time do you really need to dedicate to get the most out of the course? I don't buy the 20 minutes guff... 

[Woodinblack]

3 hours ago, Bigwan said:

I see the technique accelerator course is open for registration again. Anyone who signed up the first time (and stuck with it!) what did you think of it? My playing rut over the last few years would give the Marianas trench a run for its money! It's getting free time is my biggest issue. How much time do you really need to dedicate to get the most out of the course? I don't buy the 20 minutes guff... 

I enjoyed it. The hardest part was getting enough time, as they are between half an hour and 1 hour lessons every week.

Some of the lessons are so trivial you wonder what you are doing, like playing the same note over and over, but when it comes down to it, you realise you have heard things you hadn't heard before like the way you play a note etc.

I don't know if I took on as much as I could (it is half a year), but I still have access to the whole course and there are bits I wouldn't mind going back and doing.

Overall I can say it did get me out of a rut, and I did become a bit better. Not hugely better, but a bit, and that was worth it for me.

[Ruarl]

10 hours ago, Bigwan said:

I see the technique accelerator course is open for registration again. Anyone who signed up the first time (and stuck with it!) what did you think of it? My playing rut over the last few years would give the Marianas trench a run for its money! It's getting free time is my biggest issue. How much time do you really need to dedicate to get the most out of the course? I don't buy the 20 minutes guff... 

I managed to keep up with it for about two months before life got in the way. The main problem I had was the lectures which introduced each week were nearly an hour long. If you wanted to keep up, you had to watch those on Monday. There was some suggestion from Scott that they would try and move the posting of the intros to the weekend if they ran the course again. 

I found I could do the exercises in about 30 mins. 

Unless you have an excellent memory, take notes during the videos. There are various subtleties to each of the exercises, and thanks to Scott’s rambling style, they’re very difficult to find again quickly. 

Right now, I’m picking the course up where I left off earlier. I have a bit more time at the moment. I’d say it is good value for money, and it has certainly helped improve my technique. 

[bearhart74]

Why are people so resistant to being open to criticism and change of technique?

Professional golfers have coaches and change them every once in a while to entirely change their swing...same with just about every professional level activity.

Why not guitar/bass?

[Dazed]

I’m hovering about signing up for the current 26 week accelerator............ Again. I think the last time an offer appeared for membership I was hovering and decided against it. I get confused by academy membership and enrolment in these specific courses. Why not have one membership and everything else is part of that? I hate choice 😂 

What I have realised in my own playing is i have two modes of playing.

Playing along to music - which had been my staple for many years mostly self taught with the occasional bout of lessons that I rarely kept up with. 

Much later on I picked up Scales, modes, arpeggios etc all from online stuff. 

What I've realised is I don’t play the same at all when doing these different types of practice. Most of the structure and form of my fretting hand goes out of the window when I play “music” and reappears when doing “scale” types exercises. I think it comes from years of copying whatever I’m listening to at the time.

I wonder if I’m too long in the tooth to change my technique. Is it too embedded in me after all this time?

[Woodinblack]

56 minutes ago, Dazed said:

 I get confused by academy membership and enrolment in these specific courses. Why not have one membership and everything else is part of that? I hate choice 😂 

Have a look on here for the thread on SBL where scott explains it.

 

56 minutes ago, Dazed said:

I wonder if I’m too long in the tooth to change my technique. Is it too embedded in me after all this time?

No, youre not!

[Chrisbassboy5]

Lots of awesome bass players have the 'baseball bat' left hand technique... is it all that?

[Stub Mandrel]

This thread is an interesting read.

One of the hardest things to get is an honest, objective critique of your playing style. When i meet other bass players they tend to be awfully polite - I wish they would say 'have you tried' or 'your behind the beat'.

I went to a teacher looking for 'refreshing' my playing. He barely asked me to play anything then shot into long exercises playing different modes along single strings. He seemed to want to turn me in to a jazz improviser. I wanted someone to spot my weak points and also help me get to grips with 5-string (where its across the neck that you really want to develop).

Two (of many) things that have helped me... right at the beginning in my first band we did a few songs with syncopated bass lines and the guys really helped me to get the rhythms right.

Second, one of my brothers watched the recording of my recent (and first for~ 23 years) gig and took it apart song by song - in the nicest possible way. With fresh eyes it was easy to see how we started off pretty loose then after a couple of songs 'clicked' into the groove and our timing got much better. There was the one where the guitarist and I were locked together but I'd got fractionally ahead of the drums.  Another where the hi-hat pattern went wrong so what I normally play wasn't quite working. Silly things like me standing in the wrong place and my awful microphone technique for backing vocals - moving my head close in at last minute and pulling away too early - the only one that worked well was ironically when I was right back from the mike because I was unsure of myself and the sound engineer had bumped me up! Some good things - where I got lost, went to root notes for a verse and then slipped back in.

Obviously the view we had wasn't really going to help with wrist position etc. but I'd love to get my technique dissected in the same way.

the lesson I REALLY want is the one that helps me remember the structure of complicated songs quickly and easily!

 

[ambient]

On 24/06/2019 at 12:40, bearhart74 said:

Why are people so resistant to being open to criticism and change of technique?

Professional golfers have coaches and change them every once in a while to entirely change their swing...same with just about every professional level activity.

Why not guitar/bass?

I guess because they’re already playing and making music? They’re probably struggling with aspects, but manage to get by.

Golf is a spontaneous and very public kind of thing, you hit the little ball with the stick and it’s meant to fly toward the hole, you’re being watched by other people and look silly if it actually flies toward some posh guy’s Merc. With playing bass or guitar you can have the luxury of spending hours and hours sitting in your room learning something note-for-note, before going out and playing it in front of people. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with this approach, if music is your hobby then you should enjoy it.

Edited June 30, 2019 by ambient